In 2006, I loved three movies. In 2007, I loved one. In 2008, I loved seven. This has been a tremendous year for films, and any one of the first seven movies on my list I would’ve been happy to put at #1 in a lesser year. I saw at least thirty films this year I liked or loved, but these are the ten that really stayed with me. Here are my favorite films of 2008…

1 . The Dark Knight. Best superhero movie ever? Yeah, pretty much. Who ever thought that a summer blockbuster could become the greatest movie of the year and feature the greatest performance of the year? Batman Begins was fine and all, but leave it to Christopher Nolan (who did the best directing job in 2008, no matter what the Academy thinks) to up the ante in the sequel in every way, with a better story, bigger scope, and an even more impressive ensemble of actors. Christian Bale delves even deeper into his character’s psyche, and Aaron Eckhart delights playing both town hero and psychopath. The late Heath Ledger, who’s going to win the Oscar for his portrayal in February, delivers the scariest screen villain performance since Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs. But what I loved most about The Dark Knight was the anarchistic sinister tone, one that didn’t compromise, one that wasn’t afraid to explore death, fear, hopelessness, and, yes, darkness, and one that stays with the viewer long after watching it. The Dark Knight is one of the five best films of the decade, a masterpiece that puts Christopher Nolan at the top of the best visionaries in the business (more…)

1997. I’m 12 going on 13. It was the year of awkward spiked hair, brand new contact lenses, trying to make new friends, and lusting after girls (yep, you heard that right). I loved movies from an early age, but it was around 1997 that I started seeing them in theatres on a fairly regular basis. There were a lot of movies I enjoyed in 1997. Contact, Air Force One, Breakdown, Starship Troopers, Scream 2, Speed 2 (shoot me), Chasing Amy, Face / Off, U-Turn (Katie, shoot me), and so on.

But it was a little movie called Titanic that brought me and my mom to tears on a gloomy Saturday in mid-December. It would’ve been December 20, 1997. None of my friends or family wanted to see that new romance epic directed by James Cameron except for my mom, so we made a little date out of it. We arrived at the theatre an hour early and waited in line for what is still one of my favorite movies, and for sure my most memorable movie-going experience with my mother. We were hugging each other when the film ended, and I don’t think that’s happened before or since. Seeing Titanic at the tender age of 13 made me love the movies. And a lot of that love had to do with a boy named Leo and a girl named Kate (more…)

Clint Eastwood is the greatest muthafuckin badass ever to claw his way on to the movie screen, and in Gran Torino, at 78 years old, he’s still that same old tough guy, rough around the edges, but intimidating and scary as hell. This is the scene-chewing, racist spewing, diabolically entertaining, possibly final (or penultimate?) performance from the legendary actor / director, and if this marks the last performance he ever gives us, he will have gone out in great form. While part of me wishes for one last Dirty Harry movie, Gran Torino is probably the closest we’re going to get, and I’m not complaining. The film itself, which places Eastwood’s character Walt in the middle of a neighborhood slowly being taken over by gangs and thieves, is a fairly low-key effort from the director, his least ambitious since 2002’s Blood Work. The movie meanders a lot until it makes its way to a big showy ending that feels a tad melodramatic. If anyone but Eastwood were playing his role, it’s unlikely anyone would give a damn about this movie at all. It’s Eastwood that gets the butts in the seats, and it’s Eastwood’s performance that gets people talking about this movie (more…)

Best Picture

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall-E

Best Director

• Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
• David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Ron Howard, Frost / Nixon
• Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
• Gus Van Sant, Milk

Best Actor

• Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
• Frank Langella, Frost / Nixon
• Sean Penn, Milk
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress

• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

(more…)

Ohhhh brother, where do I begin with this one? It’s difficult to review a movie like this because there’s the film critic in me who wants to tear it apart from end to end, because it is indeed a terrible movie. At the same time, the horror buff side of me was actually fairly entertained by it, with three or four fabulous death scenes, an amazing extended nude scene that’s rarely seen in mainstream horror movies anymore, and, of course, the 3D. Therefore, I wondered what would happen of those two personalities of mine bumped into each other on the sidewalk and started talking about this movie. The ensuing conversation would probably take place… Keep reading to find out…

FC (film critic): Watch where you’re going!

HB (horror buff): Sorry about that.

FC: Excuse me, I have a screening to get to.

HB: Oh really? Me too. (more…)

I hated wrestling as a kid. I never understood the point of it all. Thankfully I had parents who didn’t make me go to any matches or watch any matches on TV. As a kid I thought of watching wrestling about as exciting as watching paint dry. I remember in high school having a friend who was on the Reno High wrestling team, and I just couldn’t figure out the appeal of the sport. The only reason I would’ve tried out for it was to have a little man-on-man contact, something a bit lacking in those days. At 24 years of age, I still feel the same way I always do about the sport, which is “so what?” But for the first time, Darren Aronofsky’s magnificent new film The Wrestler has opened my eyes. Aronofsky’s clear passion for the sport, mixed with Mickey Rourke’s fascinating portrayal of the title role, made me interested in wrestling for two hours. And that’s not an easy feat. But going further, this is one of the five best films of 2008. It’s not the most innovative (Slumdog Millionaire), topical (Milk), or epic (The Dark Knight), but it’s a riveting story, one told with great care, with a performance for the ages. This movie held me in its grip from beginning to end.

Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a former celebrity in the wrestling world circa 1988, still performing (more…)

Lots of hype, underwhelming pay-off. In what is essentially a very good made-for-TV movie, one that just happens to star two of our finest actors, Doubt tells a simple story about a nun who suspects the priest at her Catholic school of making “advances” toward a younger black student. Did he actually commit these lewd acts, or is the inappropriate behavior only in the nun’s wild imagination? It took me awhile to warm up to the material presented in this film, and in a classic scene where the nun and the priest have their giant confrontation, I finally settled in and found myself really getting involved in the story. But then it ended. Most of the Oscar movies this Fall have been long or simply felt long. Doubt feels too short. I could’ve watched the movie for another thirty to forty minutes. Maybe that’s writer-director John Patrick Shanley’s point, given that we never do find out if the priest made the advances or not, and we’re left to our own ideas on the subject. Overall I found Doubt a good film but not a great one, as it feels considerably stagy at times, with Shanley not exactly rehearsed in the language of film direction (more…)

Considering all the hoopla surrounding the life of Brangelina (or AngieBraddy, if you prefer), all their kids and twins and triplets, and every little step the two mega celebrites take, it’s rather astonishing to look at the sheer amount of excellent work the duo cranked out this year. Angelina Jolie got to flex both her physical and acting muscles this year, the first in the kinetic action-movie-on-steroids-extravaganza Wanted and the second in the subdued and hypnotic drama Changeling. Brad Pitt showed off his comedic side in the frantic and funny Burn After Reading, and now, in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, he grows younger as his director, the talented and versatile David Fincher, grows up. This is a marvelous romantic epic, imperfect and a little long, but fascinating, with astonishing technical breakthroughs and superb lead performances by Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

That suspension of disbelief everyone has to get past in order to enjoy this movie is the very idea of a man aging backward, born as a small 80-year-old man and growing younger (more…)

Jim Carrey used to be my childhood hero. I saw Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in theatres three times, and for at least a year I found myself (annoyingly) rattling off quotations from the movie toward anyone who would listen to me. Over the years I fell in love with his performances in The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Batman Forever, and Liar, Liar. Then in 1998 he delivered a magnificent performance in one of my all-time favorite films The Truman Show, definitely still Carrey’s highpoint. He hit his first big skids with lame movies like Me, Myself, and Irene, The Grinch, and The Majestic, but he bounced back with the memorable and daring romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s been nearly five years and Carrey hasn’t come close to recapturing some of that magic. Here’s hoping for the best with the upcoming I Love You Philip Morris. Jim Carrey’s latest mainstream venture into broad comedy is, unfortunately, just like the cash cows Bruce Almighty and Fun with Dick and Jane, serviceable and forgettable. While the movie’s heart is certainly in the right place, and the concept actually lends itself to a great Carrey comedy, the laughs just don’t come fast and furious enough for us to care (more…)

When not one but two Kate Winslet movies come out over the course of two weeks, let’s just say that life is good. Really good. A day after Christmas, Winslet’s first teaming with Leonardo DiCaprio since Titanic opens in limited release. Revolutionary Road, another film about suburban angst from director Sam Mendes, has proven itself to be my most anticipated of the fall. Early word is great, so here’s hoping for another masterpiece from the American Beauty director. While I anxiously await that film, I got to already experience my first Winslet treat of December by watching the fascinating new Stephen Daldry film The Reader.

Taking place in post-WWII Germany, a 15-year-old student Michael (David Kross) begins an affair with a 36-year-old woman Hanna (Winslet) over the course of a few months. The two have sex, yes, but she also makes him read to her all the books he has to analyze for his classes. Promoted at her job, she abruptly leaves town and years go by with Michael moving on with his life. But he sees her again, years later (more…)